Completely Unprepared

So you want to climb the Roof of Africa...

This is the true story of how a group of six extremely unprepared wanafunzi (students) managed to *spoiler alert* summit Mt. Kilimanjaro.

A step-by-step guide

1. Go to a full moon party on a sandbank off the coast of Stone Town, Zanzibar the night before you are supposed to head to Moshi.  Trust me, you'll feel great the next morning! 



And go SCUBA diving before the party!


2. Actually wake up on time to catch your 7:00am ferry
3. Realize that you still need to pack before you leave for the ferry terminal 
4. Get to the ferry in just enough time, thankful you bought your ticket yesterday
5. After arriving in Dar es Salaam, talk your way into reducing the cost of a taxi to 20,000/= (Tanzanian shillings) to the bus station, arguing that it's only a few miles away and that you could walk there
6. Ride in the taxi for a half hour, realize you could NOT have walked there
7. Arrive at the "bus terminal", a sandlot with a bunch of buses and find one that is heading to Moshi, Tanzania
8. Realize the bus you will be on for the next 12 hours has no bathroom and no air conditioning
9. Listen to 12 hours of loud Tanzanian music videos and violent movies
10. Text the Kilimanjaro climbing company you are trekking with that you will arrive in Moshi within the next hour
11. Get a text back telling you that you weren't supposed to go to Moshi, the office is in Arusha
12. Thank your respective god that your bus is also going to Arusha
13. Arrive in Arusha at 11pm and meet a guy with a sign and a bus with your name on it
14. Get chipsy mayai (fries and eggs) at the one restaurant in Arusha since you haven't eaten all day.  Apparently, it's "the place to be!"



No really, it says so right on the building


15. Pass out upon arriving at the company's office, luckily they have some beds you can sleep on for free!
16. Wake up the next day, hang out at the office, then grab a daladala (public transport) to a local rental place because you have no hiking gear.  You've been living in Zanzibar for four months, what use would you have for warm clothes?



The warmest thing I needed before was my black rash guard for swimming


17. Realize that Arusha is a lot colder than Zanzibar and that you are extremely unprepared for this climb since you are cold before you even start
18. Head back to the office for lunch, accidentally eat all the food that was prepared for the whole staff because you thought it was just for the six of you.  Zanzibari portions all around!
19. Notice a large group of people outside the office
20. Ask who they are
21. Be told that those 21 people are your porters up the mountain.  They're going to carry all of your stuff.  Why 21 porters are needed is still a mystery to me.  
22. Next day: leave at 8am to head to Kilimanjaro National Park.  It takes over three hours since you need to stop and let all the porters grab breakfast
23. Arrive at the mountain, woo!  All the stress is over with!
24. Haha, NOPE.
25. Be told that your residence permits aren't valid in the park since they're stamped into your passport and you could easily forge a stamp (okay?).  You owe at least another $1300 in park fees
26. Argue with park employees for an hour about how you ARE a resident
27. Call your study abroad program's academic director (who is supposed to be free of you by now - the program ended days ago) and ask for a HUGE favor - to have a different copy of your residence permit sent to Kilimanjaro.  Now.
28. She tells you that today is a public holiday and that the immigration office that has the permits is closed
29. Luckily, the park will let you start the climb, and informs you that you need to be willing to pay that extra money when you get back down the mountain if your permit doesn't come through
30. START THE CLIMB.  THREE HOURS LATER THAN SCHEDULED.



Our "before" picture at the base of Kili


31. Make it through a beautiful forest hike and emerge at the first hut of your stay: Mandara
32. Sign in with your name and occupation...



I am a tryer of new things, traveling with two explorers, an aspiring witch doctor, a pirate, and a prophet


33. Pass out on your bed still kinda stressing over the last few days, but no worry, you're on the mountain now, everything else can wait for five days!
34. Wake up early the next morning (Day 2 of the climb) for tea and to start hiking.  You come out of the forest and into smaller shrubbery, but still very green.  The second hut, and your home for the next two days: Horombo



The view from Horombo - beautiful above the clouds!

35. Wake up even earlier the next morning (Day 3) to watch the sun rise while sitting above the clouds.  Absolutely breathtaking!
36. Take a small hike, but ascend 1,000 feet, to Zebra Rock to help with acclimatization.  Come back to Horombo for the night to watch the sunset, equally as breathtaking

    

    Zebra Rock - aptly named.  The colors are this way from a lot of mineral deposits that drip down the rock

37. Start hiking early (Day 4) to reach Kibo Hut by the early afternoon.  Not as homey as the other two huts, but you're not allowed to stay the night there.  Unpack your sleeping bag and try to get as much rest as possible before wake up at 11:30pm.  
38. Yeah, PM
39. Have a very light "breakfast" and don all the clothes you brought, including your "If you can't climb it, drink it" Kilimanjaro beer shirt
40. Start your summit attempt at 12:30am, totally in the dark
41. Cry a little bit at how beautiful the stars are up this high (about 16,000 feet above sea level, take that Colorado!)
42. Are told that the hike to the summit will take 4-5 hours
43. Take 8 hours to reach the summit, barely breathing
44. Get severe altitude sickness (headache, nausea, vomiting, dizziness), but stay up there long enough for the whole group to take a picture
45. Congratulate yourself because YOU JUST CLIMBED MT. KILIMANJARO, ONE OF THE SEVEN SUMMITS AND THE TALLEST MOUNTAIN IN AFRICA.

    

    I take your '14er and raise you 5,000 feet to 19,341 feet above sea level

46. Go get a Kilimanjaro beer to celebrate.

Asante sana kwa kusoma!

Kim

Out Standing in our Field

Hamjambo!

I've realized that I've covered a whole bunch of cultural things in Zanzibar and Tanzania, but completely neglected to even mention the whole reason why I'm here: STUDY.  Being with the School for International Training (SIT), our whole program revolves around field research and conducting research in coastal ecology and natural resource management.  Our group of 16 American students has been traveling all around Unguja and Pemba (the two islands that make up Zanzibar) learning about different topics in these areas.

We went to Matemwe to learn about the different species of seagrass and their importance to the ocean.  There was also a sea turtle conservatory there with baby turtles!

Matemwe is gorgeous! There's a lot of fishing there too, so we were able to see fish being cleaned.  That actually turned rather depressing since there were a lot of fish that shouldn't be caught like sharks and very large stingrays.

We headed to Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Forest Reserve for a few nights to conduct a mangrove survey and do behavioral analysis on the Red Colobus Monkeys the park is famous for, a species that's endemic to Zanzibar, so they're found nowhere else in the world.

SO. MANY. MONKEYS.

Two days were spent at Pange Sandbank and Reef to conduct an intertidal survey and coral reef survey.

Found Nemo!

A lot was done in Pemba Island (the North island of Zanzibar), but we were able to see how traditional homes are built, how charcoal is made, and we learned about the Pemba Flying Fox, a huge bat endemic to Pemba Island.

Traditional mud-and-stick homes in Pemba

Misali Island, a tiny dot North of Pemba, was visited to learn about Marine Protected Areas.

Can you find the octopus?

Prison Island, a popular tourist destination since it's easy to get to from Stone Town, was visited to learn about tourism impacts and the conservation efforts of their giant tortoises.

Some of these turtles were almost 200 years old!

We went on safari just to go on safari.

I'll let you know how my pictures do in the NatGeo photo contest I entered

And I'm currently working on a month-long Independent Research Project on the groupers that inhabit the Marine Protected Area on Chumbe Island, a little dot of an island Southeast of Stone Town, Zanzibar.  I consider myself pretty lucky!

Chumbe is so pristine, there are a bunch of turtles on the reef (see above), and I was a few feet away from a Blacktip Reef Shark today!  

Asante sana kwa kusoma!
Kim

The Only One Like Me

Hamjambo!

My last few weeks have been crazy!  From traveling to Pemba Island, back to Zanzibar for a few days, then to Dar es Salaam on the mainland, then to Mikumi National Park for safari, back to Zanzibar for a few days, and I'm now on Chumbe Island starting my month-long research on the groupers that inhabit the offshore coral reef.  So this is basically the first time I've sat down in three weeks!  Keeping busy isn't a bad thing, though, and we've been able to fit a lot into a very small period of time that I definitely wouldn't have been able to do by myself.  But my experiences both in Pemba and in Dar es Salaam really made it obvious that I am an outsider here and there's no hiding it.

Sixteen elephants wandered to the watering hole at sunset while we were at Mikumi for safari, it was absolutely magical!  And yes, I know I look like a tourist, we all went to this awesome second-hand clothes market in Dar es Salaam and bought the most tourist-y safari shirts we could find!

If it's not obvious, I'm a very white person (although I am getting pretty tan from the hot African sun) who has spent most of her life in New Hampshire, so I've never been one to stand out due to the way I look - unless I had my pants unzipped or a big stain or my shirt or something of that nature.  But in Pemba, some locals have never seen a white person before, so our group of sixteen was gawked at every time we left our homestays, which was somewhat disconcerning.  While in Pemba, I learned to dislike the term "mzungu", which for those of you who do not know, means "white person" in Kiswahili slang.  It was cute for a bit, but when it started to replace my name was when I became upset.  My host mom even referred to me as her mzungu instead of using my name.  I walked by a father holding his daughter who both looked at me, and I heard the father whisper in his daughter's ear "mzungu", which she then repeated.  And I had a Massai yell "MZUNGU" to me until I finally gave in and turned around, to which he child-like replied "hi" then laughed and ran away (this is like a 30 year old man doing this).  I had never felt more disrespected after those incidents.  It was only later that I learned from my homestay aunt that most people don't mean "mzungu" in a derogatory way, it's just cultural to refer to white people like that.  Doesn't mean I like it now.

We did try to fit in though!  We all were dressed up for our Pemba homestay farewell party, so we decided to take a picture like the Zanzibaris, hence the lack of smiling.

For the past two weeks, I've been staying at the University of Dar es Salaam on mainland Tanzania, and it would be putting it lightly to say that Dar is very different than Stone Town, Zanzibar.  We weren't off the ferry for five minutes before I had young children running up to me, not to say hi (or bye, so many children say "buh-bye" and I think it's becuase it's the only word in English they know for some reason) but to yell "Give me money!" with a hand outstretched.

I'm not a walking ATM people!  Just because I'm white doesn't mean that I have money.  I constantly bargain at markets with "Mimi ni mwanafunzi", I'm a student, since I don't have a whole lot of money and I don't want to get the exorbitant mzungu prices at the market.

The view from my dorm room at the University of Dar es Salaam.

Our group of 16 wanafunzi made up probably half of the white student population at the University, meaning that everyone knew who we were, where we were, what we were doing, everything.  The only people who waved at us or said hello were the other white students - ones we've never seen before.  Very different from Zanzibar.  I've never been in a minority racial group before and it was a very different experience than I thought it would be.  I had this idea in my head that it would be liberating, and people would want to know all about you because you were different.  At least in this situation, it was very different.  We were barely approached by the other wanafunzi, and people seemed generally very short with us, even when we tried to practice our Kiswahili.  I really don't know what the problem was, and I may never find out, but let's just say I was very happy to get off the ferry from Dar and see the Karibu Zanzibar sign.

But safari was really cool too!  For the record, Mufasa and Sarabi named their son Simba, which means "lion" in Kiswahili.  They named their son "lion".  Good job Disney.

Asante sana kwa kusoma!
Kim

The Post You've Been Waiting For

Hamjambo!

So if you know me, you know I love everything about food: the smell, restaurants, cooking, and especially eating.  I know that once I come back from Zanzibar, after friends and family tell me how tan I'm getting (which is pretty tan if I must say so myself), they'll ask me about what I learned to cook.  Meals in Zanzibar are different than anywhere else I have visited, so I thought it would be cool to, instead of just saying the food I'm eating, to take you all through the steps of a Zanzibari meal.

Firstly, you are invited to a friend's home for dinner.  Dinner is eaten pretty late here, anywhere between 7 and 10 pm (that's 1 and 4 usiku in Swahili time), so you show up around seven thirty because Swahili time is never on-time.  The most important thing is that you take your shoes off when you enter - in Islam, shoes are considered dirty and shouldn't be worn in the house.  Also, if this is a formal occasion, you should dress for it.  That means full headscarf and makeup (and for the mzungus, makeup to make you look Arabic).  For Eid al-Adha, a Muslim holiday celebrating the end of hajj (the pilgrimmage to Mecca), I had my makeup (over)done by my host mom.  See below.

Anyway, back to the meal.  You need to greet your host with a handshake (people use the "limp fish" handshake technique or just a low high-five basically) and you hold on until you've finished multiple rounds of greetings.  There's no appetizers set out, no glass of wine (Muslims don't drink alcohol), just a floor mat and pillows or if you're lucky, a couch.  Eventually, you hear "Chakula tayari!" (food's ready!) and you head for the dining room.  You'd expect a dining room like at home with miscellaneous paintings on the walls and a table and chairs in the middle.  Wrong.  There's an eating mat spread out on the floor with some plastic on top for food spillage, which will definitely happen.  No chairs, no table; you sit on the floor cross-legged around all your friends and family.

The food spread out before you is like nothing you've ever seen: breads, beans, some veggie things, something that looks like a fat pyramid, mounds and mounds of rice, potatoes (the potatoes here are incredibly sweet), fruits, and that one thing you know you love - chapatti.  Chapatti is a wonderful food, it's a flat bread that's buttery and flaky and I almost don't want to know how it's made because I know it's going to be extremely unhealthy.  You do a second count of the people in the room and look at the amount of food for those people and think that there's no way that double the amount of people could finish the meal in front of you.  Wrong again.

Those breads: chapatti, coconut bread, and boflo (bread loaves)
Beans: I hated beans before I came here, now I love them.  Still have no idea how to make them.
Veggies: peas in a curry coconut sauce, pilau which is a soup with potatoes, meats, peppers, onions, tomatoes, and whatever else you want basically
Fat Pyramids: they're called samosas and they're incredible.  They're usually come in beef or veggie form, and they're basically the meat and veggies wrapped up in filo dough, similar to what they use to make baklava in Greek recipes
Rice: a staple of a Zanzibari diet.

One of the first things I learned in Zanzibar was to always serve yourself, don't let a Zanzibari do it because you will get your dinner plate covered in rice with the top of the mound rising about six inches off the plate (and that's no exaggeration), and then you get pilau and other stuff on top of it.

Oh, and did I mention that Zanzibaris don't use silverware?  It is common and accepted to eat with your hands.  It is both a cultural and religious belief - that Mungu (God) made us to eat with our hands and he gave our hands something that makes the food taste sweet that you lose if you use silverware.  My first time eating with my hands was an absolute disaster, there was rice everywhere but in my belly.  I've picked up on some of the techniques now though, and I can almost finish a plate like a Zanzibari.

So you've been eating with your hands all these foods you've never seen before, and are ready to birth your food baby when your host grabs your plate and you think you're finished.  Haha, NOPE.  An equally huge portion of rice, pilau, meats, and everything else gets piled back on your plate.  Your expression just drops as you realize that you might actually throw up if you keep eating.  A helpful phrase is "nimeshiba", meaning "I am full", but that actually means nothing to Zanzibaris and you have to eat more food anyway.  And once you're actually done and there's no more food to be piled on your plate, it's time for chai!  Chai (communal name for all tea in Kiswahili) here is delicious and spicy and served extremely hot, which is great on super hot and humid days!

And by the way, cooking is done on the floor as well.  So hope your leg muscles are ready for a bunch of squats!

Anyway, once you're finished with absolutely everything, it's time to head back home, so you thank your host with goodbyes that are longer than the greetings, put your shoes back on, and pass out on your bed from all the food you ate.  Time to do it again tomorrow night!

Asante sana kwa kusoma!

Kim

Kiswaspanglish?

Hamjambo!

I'm writing this post sitting at a hotel restaurant about 20 meters from the insanely blue ocean with the sandbank of Pange Reef in the distance.  This hotel has the fastest wifi in Stone Town, but it only lasts for an hour (good things never last).  And I received another marriage proposal on the way here, so that brings to total up to five since I've been here.  Don't worry mom, I haven't accepted any!

Having been living in Zanzibar for a bit over a month now, I'm starting to really use the language more and communicate better with the locals.  But, I still constantly screw up, hence the title of this post.  I guess I'm now sort of tri-lingual with English, Spanish, and Kiswahili, so it would make sense that I get the three confused in my head sometimes, especially Spanish and Kiswahili.  It's been difficult, especially since I haven't been truly introduced to a new language since I was about seven years old.

Being thrown into a completely new language is a fun and different experience, but it can get difficult very quickly, especially when you're not involved in a Western language.  The style of Kiswahili is very different than many of the Western languages, so vocabulary is hard to remember just becuase it is so foreign.  But we have had the best Kiswahili instructors in Stone Town, and even better than that are the people of Zanzibar.  It's fun to be known as those mzungu wanafunzi who know Kiswahili, and the locals love to help us practice, always quizzing us and testing how much we can understand and speak.  And when we get visibly frustrated with our lack of Kiswahili skills, we're always told either "pole, pole" (pronounce pol-ay) or "kidogo, kidogo", both which mean to slow down because we'll get it eventually.  Just another way the Zanzibaris have been extremely kind to us since we've been here.

We even got to graffiti a wall (behind us) 

Kiswahili technically isn't too difficult in the same way as the Western languages are: there aren't many irregulars, the conjugations are straightforward, as well as the tenses.  The difficult part of the language is the fact that there are so few words.  This means that one word can mean five different things in English, which gets really confusing.  For example, I asked a fishermen about the trends he's seen in the fishing industry of Zanzibar, and I couldn't figure out if the answer he gave me was that the fish size was getting smaller or if the fish population was getting smaller.  That's why, in Kiswahili, it takes many sentances to say what one sentance says in English.  I would think that would be rather annoying, but it goes along well with the "pole pole" Swahili culture and being on island time, everything moves slower.  The only time I've been frustrated with this has been in lecture, when a simple concept is very overexplained until it's beaten into the ground.  Today in class, I asked a question about whether or not the workers at Jozani forest reserve put tags on their Red Colobus Monkeys to keep track of them and I got a five minute explanation of what tags are and that they can be different colors and that they have been used in the past, but I never got a straight answer to my "yes or no" question.  
 

But when your classroom is the ocean, you want to embrace the "pole pole" culture

But these are two totally different cultures, and that's just how it is here - and it's not like I had anywhere special to be after the lecture.  Probably the most fun we've had with Kiswahili are the mistakes we've made.  In my Kiswahili oral exam, I spoke a full sentence of Spanish to my mwalimu (teacher) before I realized I wasn't in either English or Kiswahili.  I gasped, covered my mouth, and apologized over and over again.  My mwalimu thought it was absolutely hilarious, and I still passed, so that's a good thing!  I've made many other not-so-great mistakes though, and so have the rest of the wanafunzi.  See below:

Trying to say: I've had a good day (responding to a greeting)
Actually said: Banana

Trying to say: I'm drinking coffee
Actually said: I'm taking a poop

Trying to say: Brush your teeth before you go to bed
Actually said: Brush your teeth before sex

Friend trying to say: Hold him back
Friend actually said: Grab his butt

Friend understood: My husband is doing laundry
What was actually said: My husband is dead

Whoops!

Even though we make many mistakes, it's really appreciated when we try to actually learn the local language and not just going around to people saying "Jambo, Jambo!".  Combining the language with actually dressing appropriately (loose-fitting clothing, knees and shoulders covered, etc.) helps us to be much more accepted than the white tourists around Stone Town.  It also helps when you know some numbers in Kiswahili so you can barter at the market.  Once we learned numbers, we were able to go and buy fabric and fruits and not get the mzungu price.

On another note, this is my last week with my homestay family.  I'm going to miss them so much and will definitely visit while I'm doing my research project at the end of my program, but it's very sad that I won't be living with them again until right before I head back to the States.  We head to Jozani National Forest Reserve this weekend, and then jet off to the land-of-no-internet Pemba Island for ten days after that.

Asante sana kwa kusoma!

Kim

I Miss Bacon

Hamjambo!

It's already been three weeks since I arrived in Zanzibar and they've definitely been packed with everything from orientation to Kiswahili to snorkeling (and a not sun fun part was being stung repeatedly by jellyfish, but luckily no one had to pee on me) to getting lost in Stone Town (which is very easy to do with narrow winding roads and no grid system like New York).  But I'm really starting to learn my way here - both in directions and in culture.  African culture, Tanzanian culture, Zanzibari culture, and Stone Town culture are deep and rich and very different from the United States.  Religion plays a huge part of defining Zanzibaris' lives, and since this week was the thirteenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on September 11th, I thought it would be a good time to write about the Muslim culture here.

But first, baby sea turtles!  We visited a turtle sanctuary and got to see the turtles in all stages of life, from a few days old like these guys to just being ready to be released into the wild.  

Now, a disclaimer. Those men that attacked the US thirteen years ago did share the same religion as the Zanzibari people, and before I left, I would get concerned looks when I mentioned that Zanzibaris are predominately Muslim.  Those men didn't just attack the United States on that day, they also attacked the religion and the way of life for over 1.6 billion people.

Clothing:                                                                                                   

One of the first cultural differences I noticed getting off the plane in Zanzibar was all the headscarves that women wear.  The only time I saw someone's hair in public was if she was white.  Women are generally covered from neckline to ankles in loose-fitting clothing with a headscarf to top it all off.  Depending on how religious the woman is, she will either just wear her headscarf when she leaves the house or she will add a baibui to it, which is the face covering with a slit for her eyes (just don't call it a buibui, that's a spider, and the spiders in Zanzibar are MASSIVE OH MY GOD).  And when women leave the house, many wear a black overcoat, so walking around outside, you wouldn't think that these women have much style or care too much about what they wear.  But once you're inside a home or office, everything changes.  The baibui comes off, the overcoat comes off, and the most beautiful, colorful, fun fabrics are revealed.  Women have such an amazing choice of fabric in Zanzibar - I recently had my first experience at the market which if I were to describe it in one word, that word would be "balaa".  Go look that one up.  But that's a story for another day.  Anyway, I love the fabric choices women can have here - and women are very proud of their clothes (I mean, I would be too).  They're also very loose-fitting and flowy, one part because women aren't supposed to show the shape of their bodies, and one part because it's too effing hot in Africa to wear tight clothes.  Your body is only for your husband, and he's the only one who needs to see it.  And by covering most of your body, you also protect yourself from the harsh African sun.  Some of the wanafunzi (students) have taken to wearing them in public, and we've gotten comments on how beautiful we look, another indicator of how much headscarves are respected here.  And I kind of like the look on me too...

There's a very special way of tying headscarves that I finally figured out!

Prayer:                                                                                                       

I consider myself lucky that I'm not studying abroad in Saudi Arabia, where the call to prayer is so loud it wakes you up at 5:30 am every day to make sure you don't miss your morning prayers.  In Stone Town, I usually hear the call to prayer while I'm awake, but it's not so loud that it would disturb any non-Muslim.  My new favorite study spot is this rooftop bar that overlooks the ocean, and the call to prayer is a bit louder there since the tower is about 200 feet away from the bar.  But the sunset over the ocean is totally worth it.  

Hajj:                                                                                                            

Last night I was able to see the beginning of a big part of Islam - making the hajj.  The hajj is something that every Muslim must do if he or she is financially and physically able, and that is to make a pilgrimage to Mecca.  The trip is full of religious understanding  and Muslims are considered very pure when they return.  Our group of wanafunzi visited a member of our program who is leaving for hajj in the next few days.  She invited us all to her home and we presented her with a new headscarf she can wear on her journey.  While excited, she knows that there is a small chance she will never come back from hajj.  Every year, with the massive crowds at Mecca, people, especially smaller people, are trampled to death, and it is recommended that before making hajj you get your affairs in order just in case something were to happen.  When she told me this, I thought about how morbid it was and why anyone would want to risk a terrible death in the name of Islam.  Then I caught myself.  This same kind of thing happens at St. Peter's Square in the Vatican when a new pope is elected.  This same thing happens every year at Walmart during Black Friday, a "holiday" that celebrates the accumulation of material goods.  I later was very upset with myself for mentally criticizing someone's way of life before thinking about how my culture views similar things.

Mecca (yeah, all those dots are people).  Looks like you're more packed than on a daladala

And lastly, the reason for the title of this post.  As part of Islam, you cannot eat or drink anything that is considered dirty.  This includes consuming alcohol or drugs as well as consuming pork.  And with the population of Zanzibar being more than 99% Muslim, pork is a rarity on the island.  So yes, I sincerely miss pulled pork, pork in the crockpot, pork on the grill, and I definitely miss bacon.  

Thanks for reading!

Kim

I am NOT a Mzungu

Hamjambo!

Before I came to East Africa, I would have greeted you with “Jambo!” like in Mean Girls.  Now I know better – Jambo is a tourist greeting and is not proper Kiswahili.  The proper way is to say “Hujambo”, to which you respond “Sijambo”.  Or if you are greeting multiple people at once, like now, you use “Hamjambo”.  The more you know!

the view from the beach only a 5 minute walk from where I live

So I've been living in Zanzibar for a week and a half now, and it is finally starting to sink in that I’m really here and will be here for the next four months.  When it really sunk in though, was when I saw the stars.  The night sky in Zanzibar is absolutely stunning and has almost brought me to tears on more than one occasion.  I am living in a very dark part of the world, away from a lot of development, so the number of stars I can see is incredible.  And being in the southern hemisphere, the night sky looks different than it does at home.  When I finally had time to just look at the stars, that was when it really hit me that I’m actually in Africa and this beautiful island is mine to explore for four whole months.

the moon (look really hard!  Just left of the palm) in Paje

Since I arrived here my days have been packed with intensive Kiswahili instruction (4 hours a day plus homework!), special lectures about the culture and expectations of the program, and ocean time.  After a few days in Stone Town, the main town on the west side of Zanzibar, we headed to Paje (pronounced pah-jay), a resort village on the east side of the island.  This was when I realized how small Zanzibar actually is – the drive from one side to the other only took 45 minutes.  The beach at Paje is gorgeous and the tides are incredible.  Low tide can have you walking out over a mile until you see the ocean, and at night, you can see bio luminescent plankton washed up during low tide.  

These photos were taken 6 hours apart at high and low tide

While in Paje, we were assigned to visit a village about a five minute walk from our hotel, and my group’s personal assignment was to learn about local employment opportunities the locals have.  Using as much of the Kiswahili we learned as possible, we walked right up to people and started asking.  One conversation we had really made me rethink the entire tourism industry.  We talked to a man not much older than us who worked for an excursion company (kite surfing is very popular in Paje), and while he loves having tourists come and spend money, he isn't the biggest fan of the new all-inclusive resorts that have been popping up on the island lately.  These resorts make their money by keeping guests at the resort.  The guests almost never leave and spend money in the community, and business has gone down for him and the other local vendors in the village over the past few years.  He also made a good point about visitors going back home saying that they went to Zanzibar, but if they never talked to the locals or learned about the culture or did anything but stay at their hotel, did they really see Zanzibar?  All I know is, I’m going to think twice about booking an all-inclusive vacation in the future.  

We were able to see the poorer side of Paje, just a few minutes walk from our hotel.  It's incredible the stark difference between the resorts surrounding this village.

 On our last day in Paje, we rose before the sun to leave our hotel at 5:30am (which is 11:30 usiku in Swahili time) to head to Kizimkazi, about a 20 minute drive north.  We arrived at the beach as the sun was rising and piled into two wooden boats so as not to harm the creatures we were following.  As we headed to deeper water, we were told to be ready to jump in the water at any second in case there was a sighting so we all got our fins, mask, and snorkel ready (and in my case, my GoPro camera as well).  We heard a “GO GO GO” and we rushed into the surprisingly warm water and I stuck my camera in front of me so I didn't miss anything.  After the bubbles cleared, I saw some dark figures swimming below me, so I followed their path, and before I knew it, I was swimming less than twenty feet away from a pod of bottle nose dolphins!  It was incredible to get that close to a wild dolphin and they were so peaceful and strong and just beautiful.  I didn't even know that it was possible to swim with wild dolphins – I thought it was just a Discovery Cove thing.  I took plenty of footage, which you can check out below!

This was absolutely incredible.  The dolphins weren't afraid of us, they were just hanging out with some small humans watching.  

I also had a truly African experience a few days ago.  We had an assignment to take what’s called a daladala to different places in Zanzibar and our project was at some old Arabic ruins next to the ocean.  The ruins were interesting and all, but the really interesting thing was the daladala ride.  Daladalas are basically open-air buses you can take for 300=/ one-way (about $0.18) but they pack you in more than sardines, so good luck if you’re even the least bit claustrophobic.  But people are more than happy to move over to accommodate someone else so they don’t have to crouch on the ground.  We ended up sitting in each other’s laps (good thing there were four of us).  Deciding to study Kiswahili on the daladala was actually a good idea because many of the people on the daladala wanted to help us out, especially when we were asked to pay twice.  The kindness of the Zanzibaris is without end, and I’m grateful to each and every one that has helped me in my short time in Zanzibar so far, and I’m sure I will owe them big-time by the end of my time here.  

This is a daladala

The inside of the daladala.  This was not even close to how packed we were on the way to the ruins.  

And lastly, feel such a sense of belonging to this town and my group of sixteen.  We are recognized walking on the streets of Stone Town and asked how our Kiswahili language class is going and if we've learned anything new since we last saw each other.  And one specific experience was when I was at the site of the ruins.  I finally learned how to tie my khanga (a single piece of fabric you tie around your waist and wear as a skirt), and when I walked up to the beach bar, one of the women working there told me “You tie your khanga just like a Zanzibari!” and that was the moment that I realized that I’m no longer a mzungu.

The long yellow skirt I'm wearing is a khanga

My first few weeks here have already been unforgettable, and I’m really coming to understand the meaning of “experiential learning”, and not just having lectures.  Stone Town is beautiful and has so much history, which I will be posting updates about regularly.  

As always, thanks for reading, 

Baadaye! (until later)

Kim

Thoughts Everyone Has While Traveling

Habari!

So I made it to Zanzibar after over 28 hours of traveling, which was exhausting but totally worth it when I saw the sunset over the ocean that first night (see below).  More updates soon, but this is a quick overview of the experience, my first time traveling abroad by myself.  

The itinerary for this trip was flying from Boston to DC at 5:45am, then DC to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and then Addis to Zanzibar, where I got in at a little after 3pm the next day.  

1. The night before: I’M GOING ON AN ADVENTURE.  (insert GIF from the Hobbit here)

2. I CAN’T SLEEP I’M TOO EXCITED

3. But I actually need sleep though

4. Crap, it’s 11pm.  I need to wake up at 2am to catch my flight

5. *alarm goes off* Why is my phone ringing?

6. Ugh, right, I need to leave the country in a few hours

7. I’ll just snooze for 10 minutes, I’m going to need that beauty sleep 

8. AAAAHHHHH I SNOOZED IT FOR LIKE 45 MINUTES

9. Just put enough makeup on to not look like a zombie

10. Leggings are the best thing ever for flying

11. I really hope I didn't forget anything important

12. I’m at the airport at 3am, the check-in kiosk isn't even open yet

13. Now they’re open, no one looks friendly.  Probably mad about having to be here at 3am.

14. My bag is overweight.  

15. It can’t cost that much for an overweight bag

16. Oh wait, this is an international flight

17. AN EXTRA TWO POUNDS COSTS $200?????

18. Good thing I brought an extra duffel!

19. I need coffee

20. Why do I always have to pee right when they call for boarding?

21. I’m the only white person in my terminal

22. There’s some awesome African tribal music playing on the plane 

23. Talking to an Ethiopian college student on the plane, he told me about how the Ethiopian school system works.  You basically take an aptitude test at the end of your last year of high school and along with that select from ten professions and place them in order of preference.  Depending on your score, you will be placed at a university that educates in one of the professions, and the higher your score, the higher of preference of profession you will attend university for.  

24. I just watched the sun rise in Africa from the plane!

25. I’m actually feeling kind of uncomfortable wearing leggings on this plane because everyone else is in loose clothing – can’t wait to get my skirt on

26. I've been pronouncing Addis Ababa wrong for months (it’s AH-dis not ah-DEES for the record)

27. Two hour layover = awesome peoplewatching at Addis

28. With the security at Addis, it seems like almost anyone can get on whatever plane they want.  They didn't even check my passport.

29. Am I even on the right plane?

30. Phew, yes I am 

31. I’M FLYING OVER TANZANIA I’M ALMOST DONE TRAVELING

32. There’s no way my bags made it

33. The Tanzanian mountains are insanely gorgeous, especially from the sky

34. Getting off the plane, I can’t breathe, so humid!

35. The Zanzibar airport is literally the size of my house

36. THEY DIDN’T LOOSE MY LUGGAGE IT’S A MIRACLE

37. The exchange rate means I could bathe in shillings if I really wanted to 

38. They drive on the opposite side of the road 

39. My hotel is in sight, thank god

40. *sleeps for six hours*

My first few days of orientation have been amazing, I'll try to post about them soon!

Kim

WAKA WAKA

Hello!

So I now have just over one month until I leave for study abroad!  I've watched some of my friends leave already, and this is just making me more excited!  And with the juniors leaving, it's left me with the start of the ABROAD BLOGS!  My favorite procrastination technique during the fall is starting, and I still can't believe that it's starting now - it's only mid July!

Really the only thing I'm NOT looking forward to is the flight there.  I love to travel, to see new places, meet new people, and try new things, but I detest the actual traveling part of traveling.  Sitting down for a long period of time is like my own personal torture, and combining that with airports, sitting next to people I don't know, and feeling gross from not showering makes traveling the actual worst.  My longest flight is from Washington DC to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a trip of about 14 hours.  And that doesn't count the flight from Boston to DC, Ethiopia to Zanzibar, and layovers.  I leave at 6am on August 21st and get in to Zanzibar at 4pm on August 22nd, local time.  But I know it will all be worth it when I land and see that crystal clear ocean!

With that, since I get asked so often both "Why Zanzibar?", and "Where's Zanzibar?", I thought I'd break down some simple demographics of the island.  This is one of the struggles of studying abroad in Africa - nobody seems to know where exactly you're going (and to be honest, I had never heard of Zanzibar until I applied for the program there).

Probably the biggest reason I continually am asked questions about Zanzibar is that no one from the University of Denver has ever studied abroad there.  Being the first DU student to go on my program is so amazing, and I'm excited to have the opportunity to pave the way for other students to study there in the future.  But why Zanzibar in particular?  I've done the Europe thing, I've done the Australia thing, and I've done the Central America thing.  Each trip was life-changing (and I mean that literally, I came back a different person than when I left) and breathtaking and I learned so much, but I wanted to travel someplace completely off the map, someplace I knew I would probably never have a chance to visit again.  And the places I've visited have not been very different than what I've grown up knowing.  Since my first tour at DU, I knew I wanted to study abroad in Africa.  I wanted to live somewhere with a completely different culture than my own, and also somewhere I could study marine biology, which has been a passion of mine since I was a little girl.  When the official packing list for my program stated that I was REQUIRED to have my own mask, snorkel, and fins because I would be in the water EVERY. SINGLE. DAY., I knew I found the place for me!

First question: Where is Zanzibar?

Second Question: Is it even a country?

Not quite - In 1964, the island of Zanzibar joined with the nation of Tanganyika to form what we now know as Tanzania.  So no, it's not its own country, but Zanzibar does have its own flag, much like the US states have their own flags!  Below is the flag, and then my copy of it I painted onto my sorority letters (of course!).  The Zanzibar flag, while it is for the island, incorporates the flag of Tanzania in the upper left-hand corner to show their merge with Tanzania. 

Third Question: How big is it?

Zanzibar is only 1,023 square miles.  That number means nothing to me, so I looked it up in comparison to what I do know - US states!  To put it in perspective, Rhode Island, the smallest US state, is 1,212 square miles.  So in conclusion, the island is TINY.  Which is going to be awesome, because that should mean a constant sea breeze, right? 

Fourth Question: (I've actually been asked this) Is that where they speak the clicky language?

While I am traveling to a third-world country, it doesn't mean that there is no development.  Although the population of Zanzibar is more than 99% Muslim, the three main languages are Kiswahili, English, and Arabic.  What's Kiswahili?  It's the same as what we call Swahili, but the word Swahili encompasses the entire culture, not just the language.  However, the indigenous music is this awesome combination of African and Arabic influences, and I'm excited to listen to it live - but for now I have to settle for YouTube:

Fifth Question: Do you have to wear one of those things that covers your head?

There is a large amount of Arabic influence on the island, and is reflective in the people and the architecture around Zanzibar.  Native women can choose to cover themselves fully if they wish, but it is not required of visitors.  However, visitors are strongly recommended to be more covered than what Americans are used to.  This basically eliminates my entire summer wardrobe: sundresses, shorts, and tank tops.  But it has given me a great opportunity to buy some new clothes!  So I subsequently went out and bought a few maxi skirts, loose-fitting shirts, and the coolest pair of pants I have ever owned and probably ever will own.  See below.  But to be honest, I'm kind of jealous of the women who wear hijabs or burkas, because they never have to worry about a bad hair day - especially because no one wants to see my hair in high humidity.   

Sixth Question: Anything interesting ever happen there?

In my perusing of the internet for fun facts about Zanzibar, I came across this little tidbit: Freddie Mercury was born in Zanzibar.  Um, yeah, THE Freddie Mercury.  Having been a Queen fan for as long as I've been a music fan, I'm extremely excited to study in the birthplace of such an amazing person and someone who was part of a generation of music that I sincerely wish I was alive to see.  

Seventh Question: Is it safe for Americans to be there?

Now this is the question I've gotten from every parent I've talked to about studying abroad in Zanzibar.  I always reassure them that my university would not send me to somewhere that wasn't safe.  The worst thing I have to worry about is pick-pocketing.  One of my biggest fears, though, is offending the culture of the natives. A big point my program made was that the two biggest complaints they get about their American students is that they dress inappropriately and drink too much.  The absolute last thing I want to do is offend someone, and have that be the lasting impression of all Americans.  And being a white person, I will be a minority (something I have never experienced), and I don't need to draw negative attention to myself.  I have traveled twice as a student ambassador with People to People International with the goal of changing viewpoints of Americans.  I hope I succeeded then, and I hope to succeed during my four months in Africa.  

I had such a fun time compiling all this info and I learned so much, so I hope you did to!

Thanks for reading!

Kim

Works Cited

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/tz.html

http://www.africaguide.com/country/zanzibar/culture.htm